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Plainfield Burial Ground

A listing of those buried in the cemetery

at the Friends Meeting House in Plainfield, NJ.

The information presented here was taken from a map entitled Survey of Plainfield Friends Burial Grounds prepared by Abraham Hornstein and Mary L. Capron in March 1986. This map shows only the name, date of death, row and plot number. Inscriptions from grave stones and most of the comments were obtained from a booklet published in 1963 by Lee C. Varian, called The Plainfield Friends Meeting and Burial Ground. Additionally, some birth and death dates were obtained from a geneological data base of Social Security records and some inscriptions from 1963 to 1997 were added from grave stone readings by Alan Taplow in August 1997.

Additional Burial Records Information

Death records of the Rahway and Plainfield Monthly Meeting of Friends by Charles C. Gardner, in the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, Vol 27 (1952) pp 1,42,77 & Vol 28 (1953) p 37. These records, transcribed from records in custody of New York Yearly Meeting, List: Deaths from 1705 to 1892. Further information - thru 1963 has been compiled by Lee C. Varian "The Plainfield Friends Meeting and Burial Grounds"

Reading from Lee C. Varian's booklet: "The graves in the burial ground are arranged in 15 rows of 30 plots each. . . .The inscription is given inside quotation marks, exactly as it appears on the stone, with a single slash indicating the end of a line. A double slash indicates the beginning of a second stone on the plot. " While Lee Varian's booklet indicates some portions of weathered inscriptions are filled in from other sources (maps by Ephraim M. Vail and a publication called "A record of Members of Rahway and Plainfield Monthly Meeting, 1899-date", the listing below will not distinguish readable from non-readable material and shows it completely, combining as read and filled in. Should anyone need to distinguish this, contact Alan Taplow at the e-mail address shown immediately below.

Many plots contain no grave stones or stones inscribed with initials only. Reading this quotation from "Woodbridge & Vicinity" , we find that some early Quakers did not approve of marking graves.

"At the monthly meeting held in Woodbridge on the 17th of February, 1751, we find it stated that "Some friends hauing been Consernd in Seting up grave Stones in our Burying ground, John Vail and Joseph Shotwell are desired to Treat with them and to desire them to Haue them Remoued." On the 21st of April a report was rendered that some had taken the stones down, but had laid them on the graves. Others had not done even that - the stones remaining in their original positions. On the 17th of the next month, however, it was reported that all the stones were taken down."

This helps explain the notation on the survey map " GMNJ lists, between 1788 and 1847, at least 60 burials and probably more for which no stones or markers were found in 1963, and which are not included in Varian 1963. We assume these burials were in Rows "A" thru "E"."

Unknown information is indicated by ?.

Birth and Death dates are shown as YEAR . MONTH DAY (1997.0228 = February 28, 1997)

When partial dates (year) or (year.month) are shown, this is all the information available

In most cases, the death date is accurate.

In many cases the death date and age are known, and the birth date is calculated.

In many cases the birth dates and death dates are known, and the age is calculated.

Calculated dates are generally accurate to within 3 days.

Where there are stones but no inscription, the inscription is either missing or illegible.

For historical information about Quakers in New Jersey and the evolution of the Plainfield Friends Meeting:

McGreehan , James M.Row:P Plot:474Born: 1977.1202 , Died:1987.1223 , Age:10 , Stone: YInscription: "And a little child / shall lead them / Isa.11:16 / James Michael McGreehan / Dec. 2, 1977 / Dec. 23, 1987"Comments: On the upper right - stone has picture of a bus with the name "Jimmy" riding on a rainbow toward the sun. On the lower left is a figure on a wheel chair.